Cassandra Vogel

• Agro-ecology
• Landscape ecology
• Crop-pollinator interactions
• Biodiversity conservation in tropical agriculture

In my work I investigate how landscape characteristics affects biodiversity important for ecosystem services on smallholder farms in Northern Malawi. I focus on how the uptake of agro-ecological schemes by farmers, such as intercropping practices, at different spatial scales across a landscape may compensate for the loss of biodiversity due to landscape simplification. In particular, I am very interested in the pollination of legume crops, and how pollination may interact with other factors, such as pressure by herbivores. 

FARMS4Biodiversity

• 2016-2018: Msc Biology at Wageningen University with a double specialisation in bio-interactions and conservation and systems ecology.
  • Thesis bio-interactions: Effect of agricultural management in leek-seed production on pollinator visitation rate, species richness and proportional visitation by functional group
  • Thesis conservation and systems ecology: Seasonal differences in temperature shape macroinvertebrate communities in two monsoon-climate rivers in Bardia National Park, Nepal
• 2012-2016: Bsc Biology at Wageningen University
  • Major: Ecology and Biodiversity
  • Minor: Wildlife biodiversity
  • Thesis: Foraging behaviour of a parasitoid in the presence or absence of hosts and non-hosts on cultivars of varying attractiveness

T.P.M. Fijen, J.A. Scheper, C. Vogel, J. van Ruijven, D. Kleijn. Insect pollination is the weakest link in the production of a hybrid seed crop. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 290 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2019.106743